British Culture - User contributions [en]

Royal Crescent (Bath)

2010-01-24T20:43:26Z

Nantes:

The '''Royal Crescent''' was designed by John Wood the Younger. It was built between 1667- 1775 and belongs to the Neo- Palladian architecture. It is located in Bath, which was known as a fashionable Spa resort in the 18th century. Nowadays, it is one of the best known landmarks of the city.

The building consists of 30 town houses which form a half circus around a great lawn. The front of the building is uniform and symmetrical which evokes the idea of stability. Until today, the exterior maintained the original; the interior could be altered by the residents.

Places like the Royal Crescent are referred to as Georgian Terraces.

== References ==

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http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Somerset/Bath/article/1044

http://www.virtualtourpro.com/tours/September09/Bath-Balloons/Royal-Crescent.html

http://www.royalcrescentbath.com/

Royal Crescent (Bath)

2010-01-24T20:42:47Z

Nantes: Created page with 'The '''Royal Crescen'''t was designed by John Wood the Younger. It was built between 1667- 1775 and belongs to the Neo- Palladian architecture. It is located in Bath, which was k…'

The '''Royal Crescen'''t was designed by John Wood the Younger. It was built between 1667- 1775 and belongs to the Neo- Palladian architecture. It is located in Bath, which was known as a fashionable Spa resort in the 18th century. Nowadays, it is one of the best known landmarks of the city.

The building consists of 30 town houses which form a half circus around a great lawn. The front of the building is uniform and symmetrical which evokes the idea of stability. Until today, the exterior maintained the original; the interior could be altered by the residents.

Places like the Royal Crescent are referred to as Georgian Terraces.

== References ==

----

http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Somerset/Bath/article/1044

http://www.virtualtourpro.com/tours/September09/Bath-Balloons/Royal-Crescent.html

http://www.royalcrescentbath.com/

David Garrick

2009-12-14T21:23:06Z

Nantes:

Famous 18th-century actor, producer, dramatist, poet and co-manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. A star of his times.

David Garrick was born in Hereford on February, 1717, and died in London on January 20th, 1779.

In 1737 he moved from the family home at Lichfield to London in order to study law at Lincoln’s Inn but when he received a legacy of £ 1,000 from an uncle, he changed his plan. He had spent some time in Lisbon as an apprentice to his uncle, who was a vintner, and founded – together with his brother – the company Garrick and Co., wine merchants. Due to his business he found himself often in places of entertainment and met a lot of actors and also the manager of Drury Lane Theatre, Charles Fleetwood.

Garrick started his profession as an actor in 1741 at an unlicensed theatre in Goodman’s Fields, anonymously and masked or with a blackened face. He kept his work as a secret and even his family did not come to know about it until his success as Richard III on the 19th of October 1741. From this time on he became a very popular and much praised actor. Although Fleetwood rejected him when he was still unknown to the theatre sector, he then wanted Garrick for Drury Lane Theatre and offered him a salary larger than ever offered to an actor before. In the following years he also became very famous in Dublin.
In April of 1747 Garrick and his friends raised £ 8,000 which helped him for the lease and furnishings of Drury Lane Theatre. He became part owner of the theatre and was responsible for performing and choosing plays and actors. The Drury Lane Theatre re-opened in September 1747 and presented a high number of Shakespeare’s plays.
David Garrick married the Viennese opera dancer Eva Maria Veigel on June 22, 1749.

In his last years, he was a member of Johnsons’s Literary Club and at Hampton he was a squire.
After his death in 1779 he was buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey at the foot of Shakespeare’s statue.

== Some of his works ==

• ''Lethe: or, Esop in the Shades'' (1740)

• ''Miss in Her Teens; or, The Medley of Lovers'' (1747)

• ''The Male Coquette; or, Seventeen Fifty Sevent'' (1756)

• ''A Peep Behind the Curtain, or The New Rehearsal'' (1767)

• ''The Jubilee'' (1769)

• ''A Christmas Tale'' (1773)

== Sources ==

http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/garrick001.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/226188/David-Garrick#

[[Category:Expansion]]

Frederick North

2009-11-09T23:28:04Z

Nantes: Created page with '== Frederick North, Lord North == ---- '''Frederick North''', '''Lord North''' (13th April 1732 – 5th August 1792) was the son of the 1st Earl of Guildford and therefore desc…'

== Frederick North, Lord North ==
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'''Frederick North''', '''Lord North''' (13th April 1732 – 5th August 1792) was the son of the 1st Earl of Guildford and therefore descended from a family who belonged to the peerage since the sixteenth century. He was educated at Eton College and received his master’s degree at Trinity College in Oxford.

In 1754 at the age of twenty two he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Banbury which he thence represented for almost forty years. In 1759 he was made a Lord of the Treasury by the current Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle and this office he held until 1765. In 1766 he became a member of the Privy Council and the Duke of Grafton, who was North’s cousin and also Prime Minister at that time, made him paymaster general. In the following year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In 1770 he succeeded his cousin Grafton as the new Prime Minister. This office he held for the next twelve years until 1782. The first years of his office as Prime Minister were quite hard because of the problems with America. One of the first acts of his ministry was the response to the Boston Tea Party, namely the Coercive Acts of 1774.

After Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1782 Lord North also wished to resign because he thought the war was hopeless and impolitic. When the King accepted his resignation, North and his relatives were being rewarded by honours and sinecures. Still, one year afterwards he formed a coalition with Fox, who was a member of the Whigs, and joined the opposition. They supported the Duke of Portland under whom North became Home Secretary.

When North began to lose his eyesight he had to retire from politics but still belonged to the House of Lords for the last two years of his life. He became the 2nd Earl of Guildford in 1790.
Today he is still known for his unstable leadership during the American Revolution which eventually led to the loss of Great Britain’s colonies.

==References==
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James, Lawrence. ''The Rise and Fall of the British Empire''. London: Little, Brown and Company, 1994.

http://www.archontology.org/nations/uk/bpm/north.php

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/419312/Frederick-North-Lord-North-of-Kirtling

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/585122/Tea-Act#ref253632